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How We Contribute to the Success of Spam
Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2010. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function.
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Would you believe that nearly half of the computer users who come upon an e-mail that they know or suspect is spam will intentionally open it? The three main reasons given for clicking on the spam e-mail are curiosity, interest in the product the e-mail offers or a belief they will find an unsubscribe button when they open it. In addition, once they discover the e-mail is spam, many just delete it rather than flagging it for their spam tool.
Those are some of the major findings of an international spam survey by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group.
For professional spam distributors this is excellent news. When spam recipients click on such e-mail, that’s like painting a bull’s-eye on their address—because it can verify that the address is valid and available to receive even more spam.
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